Need to work with other countries on global warming

Darrell Mitchell, Marshalltown

Contributing Writer

My concern is why a coal miner was appointed to take charge of working in the Environmental Protection Agency. Coal is the worst environmental hazard when it comes to global warming. I was happy to see the Times-Republican printing an Our View column on global warming in our newspaper on Dec. 16.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., writing to Harold Laski, on Dec. 26, 1917, wrote “But as I grow older I realize how limited a part ‘reason’ plays in the conduct of men. They believe what they want to believe.” We need to be working with other countries and trying to get our global people to think clearly about global warming in order to solve the problem of global warming.

Michael Duggan, in writing an article in Counter Punch, Dec. 14, 2018, writes, “We have already changed the planet’s chemistry to a degree that is possibly irreparable. In 2012 atmospheric CO2 levels at the North Pole exceeded 400 parts per million (up from the pre-industrial of around 290ppm). At this writing carbon dioxide levels are around 408ppm. This is not an opinion, but a measurable fact. Carbon dioxide levels can be tested, even by people who do not believe that human activities alter the world’s environment. Even if the production of all human-generated carbon was stopped today, the existing surfeit will last for a hundred thousand years of more if it is not actively mitigated.” Duggan goes on to say, “As it is, the ‘climate debate’ polemics over the reality of global climate change is not scientific debate at all, but one of politics and power politics. Some general officers of the United States military are now on the record stating that climate change constitutes the greatest threat to our national security.”

My 10-year-old grandson, from Springfield, Illinois, in 1989, wrote an editorial opinion in the Springfield Journal newspaper about global warming. He wrote, “The ozone layer is being polluted by fluorocarbons. We are also burning wastes and factories are putting pollutants into the air from their smokestacks. It is making more holes in the ozone layer and permits more of the sun’s harmful violet rays to come through.” My 10-year-old grandson, had a moral concern about global warming some 29 years ago. Where is the mind and heart of people today when it comes to global warming? Does God want us to save our planet earth? Will our politicians work to save our planet earth? To worship the Christ Child, we must bow down and listen to reasonable men and women if we want to save our planet earth. Listen, the earth is no longer flat!